News and views about the implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 and other legislation, schemes and policies impacting the Right to Education of India's Children.

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Saturday, January 25, 2014

RTE survey detects several violations by schools

As
authorities have drawn up a calendar for the implementation of the
Right to Education (RTE) Act for 2014-15, a survey shows it was a flop
show in Karnataka in the past two years. The root cause of the problem
is that many private schools are not even aware of the rules.
The
survey was conducted in nine districts by the RTE Task Force set up by
the Karnataka Child Rights Observatory. Poor implementation has been the
bane of the RTE Act. While nearly half the 25% seats reserved in
private schools for the poor under the RTE Act remained unfilled during
2012-13, the first year of implementation, the next year it was more
than one-third.

The survey covered 83 schools, including 14 aided, 33 unaided and 36
government schools. It found that 10 aided and 14 unaided schools did
not provide even a single seat under the RTE quota in 2012-13, 24 were
unaware of the basic rules, while the faculty of only 58 schools
participated in RTE workshops conducted by the government.
The
survey also detected several other violations. Three dozen schools did
not form School Development and Monitoring Committees, while only a few
held special training for dropouts who had returned to the classroom.
Conducted over 15 days a few months ago, the survey found there is a
shortage of teaching staff in 30 unaided and 24 aided schools. Half the
schools didn't have ramps for physically challenged students.
Nagasimha G Rao, convener of the RTE Task Force, said teachers are
exposed only to a section of RTE rules at workshops. "They have to be
taught all the rules in detail. We have submitted our recommendations
based on the survey findings to implement RTE effectively to the Child
Rights Commission."
POOR PROGRESS * In 2012-13, 59,000 of the 1.08 lakh seats under the RTE quota were vacant. * In 2013-14, 37,000 seats remained unfilled. * 27 schools didn't have compounds. * Nine schools lacked separate toilets for girls. * 23 schools didn't have good playgrounds. * Drinking water in eight schools was not fit to drink.